


Contextalizing Cap

by ala



Category: Captain America - All Media Types
Genre: Fanwork Research & Reference Guides, Nonfiction
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-06
Updated: 2018-12-06
Packaged: 2019-09-12 15:45:59
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 1,636
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16875657
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ala/pseuds/ala
Summary: Archive of tumblr posts related to Steve Rogers’s Brooklyn. From 2014.





	1. Heating

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> http://ferrific.tumblr.com/post/97104542073/hi-there-i-am-such-a-huge-fan-of-yours-im

Question from http://hansbekhart.tumblr.com/ to [historicallyaccuratesteve](https://historicallyaccuratesteve.tumblr.com/post/97058927775/hi-there-i-am-such-a-huge-fan-of-yours-im):

> Hi there! I am such a huge fan of yours. I'm hoping you might be able to answer a question for me - I'm working on a story set in 1941, with Steve and Bucky living together in an older row house type building. Would you know anything about what kind of heating they might have had, if any? Would they have had a radiator or would they have just been relying on a coal stove, or something else entirely? Thanks for any advice you might be able to give!

Answer:

The building would have most likely been heated by coal and the heat would have been transferred by steam. While oil burners were becoming more popular they were more expensive and in new construction. The 1940 census [reported ](https://38.media.tumblr.com/68c137ea91914c11c85058caac4abe4b/tumblr_nbnvoa0OyA1qeazuto1_400.png)3,579,550 homes in New York with heating equipment, of which only 585,624 used fuel oil. In fact, as rationing came into effect homes with fuel oil heating were [encouraged](https://33.media.tumblr.com/301850a2aa02bfa41ee7bbca46a80edb/tumblr_nbnw04reym1qeazuto1_500.png) to convert to coal in order to maintain supplies for the war effort. Coal was eventually rationed as well in late [1943](https://t.umblr.com/redirect?z=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.ameshistory.org%2Fexhibits%2Fration_items.htm&t=MTU1NjllOTcwMjA5YTM1ZWE5Yjg3YjM1NzQ3NjMxYzNmMzBmN2IwNCx0MWlJcXZlcQ%3D%3D&b=t%3AGXjD4VSI34qFI1GO-3jarQ&p=http%3A%2F%2Fferrific.tumblr.com%2Fpost%2F97104542073%2Fhi-there-i-am-such-a-huge-fan-of-yours-im&m=1).

[When Brooklyn was the World, 1920-1957 ](https://t.umblr.com/redirect?z=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.amazon.com%2FWhen-Brooklyn-Was-World-1920-1957%2Fdp%2F0517558580%2Fref%3Dla_B001HMLF0E_1_1%3Fs%3Dbooks%26ie%3DUTF8%26qid%3D1410312954%26sr%3D1-1&t=ZDcyYTJlNmNhMmUxNWZmOTA2M2Q5ZGJkYTk2YWZhNjFjMzlhYWE3Mix0MWlJcXZlcQ%3D%3D&b=t%3AGXjD4VSI34qFI1GO-3jarQ&p=http%3A%2F%2Fferrific.tumblr.com%2Fpost%2F97104542073%2Fhi-there-i-am-such-a-huge-fan-of-yours-im&m=1)(which is a _fantastic_ resource for getting to know Steve Roger’s Brooklyn) actually has an entire chapter entitled “A Place of Coal Smoke and Ashes.” According to it, in poorer neighborhoods the apartments would be heated by pot-bellied stoves.

Coal would also be used to heat the water tank as well as the furnace. The coal would be delivered via truck down a [coal chute](https://t.umblr.com/redirect?z=http%3A%2F%2Fjustformyboys.blogspot.com%2F2012_05_01_archive.html&t=MmNiMWVjYjhlYzBiODI4OWRjZThiYzhmYmY5ZmFmNjVhYzVjZDg5Myx0MWlJcXZlcQ%3D%3D&b=t%3AGXjD4VSI34qFI1GO-3jarQ&p=http%3A%2F%2Fferrific.tumblr.com%2Fpost%2F97104542073%2Fhi-there-i-am-such-a-huge-fan-of-yours-im&m=1) into the cellar storage bin. You can still [see](https://t.umblr.com/redirect?z=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.polybloggimous.com%2F2010%2F05%2Fbrooklyn-coal-chutes-and-peek-at-some.html&t=NzNjMjYzMWIzZmM3ZDA3ODg5NTE0YzU4MmU1ODRkNWM5MjJlMmFjZSx0MWlJcXZlcQ%3D%3D&b=t%3AGXjD4VSI34qFI1GO-3jarQ&p=http%3A%2F%2Fferrific.tumblr.com%2Fpost%2F97104542073%2Fhi-there-i-am-such-a-huge-fan-of-yours-im&m=1) a bunch of covers for these chutes around the city.

The ashes were collected in cans of galvanized iron and picked up with the garbage. They were also emptied onto icy sidewalks to provide traction in the winter.

Gas, manufactured locally, would be used for cooking. 


	2. Orphan Steve Age of Majority

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> http://ferrific.tumblr.com/post/97030780493/in-the-canons-and-headcanons-where-steves-mom

Anonymous asked [historicallyaccuratesteve](https://historicallyaccuratesteve.tumblr.com/post/96460856300/in-the-canons-and-headcanons-where-steves-mom):

> In the canons and headcanons where Steve's mom died when he was a child, do you know how old he would have been before he aged out of the orphanage? Like, when does he move out? Do they let him move out when he gets the means or does he have to be a certain age? How long can he stay before they force him to go?

Answer:

  1. The answer is technically short but the context and explanation got lengthy



The preferred method of caring for an orphaned or half-orphaned (where one or occasionally both of their parents were still alive but unable to care for the child) child during the first half of the 20th century was to place the child in a foster home rather than an orphanage:

“The consensus of 1909 made institutional care an option of last resort. If at all possible, a child should be placed in a foster family. Institutional care was indicated only if the child could not be placed in a foster family or had been unsuccessfully placed. It follows that children in institutional care were difficult to place—or replace—once the objectives of institutional care were thought to be realized. The orphanages were not dealing with average children in placement. The children’s own homes were likely to be in greater disarray than the homes of other dependent children, and the children themselves less attractive to potential foster parents” ([621](https://t.umblr.com/redirect?z=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.jstor.org%2Fstable%2F30012054&t=OTI3OWVkODlhODYyYWZjZmZkNDk3OGNmNWE1ZjhmNThjOThhZGEzMixmbWxOSmlFUA%3D%3D&b=t%3AGXjD4VSI34qFI1GO-3jarQ&p=http%3A%2F%2Fferrific.tumblr.com%2Fpost%2F97030780493%2Fin-the-canons-and-headcanons-where-steves-mom&m=1))

Foster families generally took in the children without receiving compensation from the child welfare agency (which was often associated with a religious group) or the government. This is why so many children went to rural families—the assumption was that the child’s labor on the farm would pay for their upkeep. Please note that thus far I’ve talked about national attitudes and trends, not specifically New York City.

A May 24, 1925  _ _New York Times__ [article ](https://t.umblr.com/redirect?z=http%3A%2F%2Fquery.nytimes.com%2Fgst%2Fabstract.html%3Fres%3D9406E1DF1039E133A25757C2A9639C946495D6CF&t=ZDFlOGFjMDgwMTA3Mzg3NjZlMjc0MjRmNmQ4NjRiYzU0NjY5N2YwNixmbWxOSmlFUA%3D%3D&b=t%3AGXjD4VSI34qFI1GO-3jarQ&p=http%3A%2F%2Fferrific.tumblr.com%2Fpost%2F97030780493%2Fin-the-canons-and-headcanons-where-steves-mom&m=1)cited 36,000 dependent children in care outside of their families, with 6,000 of them in licensed boarding houses where the proprietor would receive $5-$12 a week per child, depending on the age of the child. The same article also says that at the time, there were 147 asylums/orphanages in the “five boroughs of Manhattan” (which I assume to mean New York City’s five boroughs, of which Manhattan is one) and 52 in the outlying districts. Combined they had the capacity to care for 30,000 children ages birth to 16 years old.

Not all the children in these institutions and homes were total orphans (my term), that is, a child with no living parents or relatives to care for them. Orphanages accepted children with two living parents who for whatever reasons could not care for the child. Parents who were unable to take care of their children would surrender their children for care with the expectation that they would get them back when they were able to take care of them. Some parents would visit their children in the institutions.

During the Great Depression, many families could not afford to keep their children, so the population of children in need swelled. Simultaneously, people no longer had the means to accept foster children without any financial compensation, which meant that fewer children left the orphanage to enter foster care. According to a study on orphanage length of stay during this period, once a child entered an orphanage they tended to stay there until they were 18 ([621](https://t.umblr.com/redirect?z=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.jstor.org%2Fstable%2F30012054&t=OTI3OWVkODlhODYyYWZjZmZkNDk3OGNmNWE1ZjhmNThjOThhZGEzMixmbWxOSmlFUA%3D%3D&b=t%3AGXjD4VSI34qFI1GO-3jarQ&p=http%3A%2F%2Fferrific.tumblr.com%2Fpost%2F97030780493%2Fin-the-canons-and-headcanons-where-steves-mom&m=1)).

The study results are pretty representative for the entire country, but the author looked specifically at Pennsylvania homes. A February, 9, 1936  _ _New York Times__[article](https://t.umblr.com/redirect?z=http%3A%2F%2Fquery.nytimes.com%2Fgst%2Fabstract.html%3Fres%3D9F03E1DD123BE33BBC4153DFB466838D629EDE&t=NjNmZGZlNjYwYzNlNzI5MjE5MDliZGJmMjA3NDg4MDE3MzgyZTVlMixmbWxOSmlFUA%3D%3D&b=t%3AGXjD4VSI34qFI1GO-3jarQ&p=http%3A%2F%2Fferrific.tumblr.com%2Fpost%2F97030780493%2Fin-the-canons-and-headcanons-where-steves-mom&m=1) gave a lower age for New York:

“Up to the age of 16 New York’s orphaned boys and girls are cared for by public and private orphanages and welfare agencies. After that they must fend for themselves—an undertaking which has always been difficult enough, but which has been fraught with additional handicaps during the depression.”

The article is about a WPA program to give work to orphans between the ages of 17 and 21. One success story in particular caught my eye: “A 17-year-old Brooklyn lad, recommended by an artist, got a free art scholarship and an apprenticeship with a leading commercial art firm. His ambition to be a commercial artist is in a fair way toward realization.” Born July 4, 1918, Steve Rogers would have been 17 when this article was written.

A few fandom conclusions:

  * It’s possible that Steve was sent to an orphanage even before the death of his mum if she was so sick she couldn’t take care of him.
  * Being so sickly it was unlikely that he was ever a candidate for a foster family, even before the depression hit.
  * He would have aged out of the system at 16 even though he would not reach the legal age of majority until [21](https://t.umblr.com/redirect?z=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.lawreform.ie%2F_fileupload%2Fconsultation%2520papers%2FwpAgeofMajority.htm&t=NzdhYTZlMmExODhmODQxZGNjNmI5MGJiNTJlMmQ0OWFkMzRlNGM0YSxmbWxOSmlFUA%3D%3D&b=t%3AGXjD4VSI34qFI1GO-3jarQ&p=http%3A%2F%2Fferrific.tumblr.com%2Fpost%2F97030780493%2Fin-the-canons-and-headcanons-where-steves-mom&m=1). 




	3. Pansy Clubs/Balls

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> http://ferrific.tumblr.com/post/96145015648/would-stevebucky-have-been-able-to-go-to-a-pansy

[vafetor](http://vafertor.tumblr.com/) asked [historicallyaccuratesteve](https://historicallyaccuratesteve.tumblr.com/post/95761642657/would-stevebucky-have-been-able-to-go-to-a-pansy): 

> Would Steve/Bucky have been able to go to a "pansy club/ball"? I can't find much information about them :/

Answer:

The short answer is yes, there existed many gay clubs in New York in the 1930s and 1940s, and drag balls did continue, they just couldn’t be as open as during the pansy craze. Since it’s late I’ll just type up some relevant passages from texts, namely [The Gay Metropolis](https://t.umblr.com/redirect?z=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.amazon.com%2Fdp%2F0395657814%2Fref%3Drdr_ext_tmb&t=YzM3ZGY1M2ZjZjFmM2FmN2NkNTRhMmM0MmU4YjBjZTNhMDk0NzBiYywwc2o4S1BCcw%3D%3D&b=t%3AGXjD4VSI34qFI1GO-3jarQ&p=http%3A%2F%2Fferrific.tumblr.com%2Fpost%2F96145015648%2Fwould-stevebucky-have-been-able-to-go-to-a-pansy&m=1) (1997) and [Queer America: A People’s GLBT History of the United States ](https://t.umblr.com/redirect?z=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.amazon.com%2FQueer-America-Peoples-History-United%2Fdp%2F1595586369%2Fref%3Dsr_1_1%3Fs%3Dbooks%26ie%3DUTF8%26qid%3D1409372298%26sr%3D1-1&t=ODlkYTI0NDIwNDE4NTA1MjBiZTFmNTczM2U2MDdiMGM2NmE2NWQ1ZCwwc2o4S1BCcw%3D%3D&b=t%3AGXjD4VSI34qFI1GO-3jarQ&p=http%3A%2F%2Fferrific.tumblr.com%2Fpost%2F96145015648%2Fwould-stevebucky-have-been-able-to-go-to-a-pansy&m=1)(2011). They’re not particularly detailed, but should be a decent starting-off point for further research.

“[On the subject of lower-class homosexuality], Bigelow was wholly misinformed. Across town form the Park Avenue swells who entertained him so lavishly in their duplex apartments, a completely different kind of gay life was thriving in Times Square. Obvious ‘fairies’ (many of them heavily made up) created their own flamboyant culture in the theater district. On either side of Broadway, there were gay bars, gay restaurants, and even gay cafeterias. Automats were especially popular with the gay demimonde and even ‘the large cafeterias in the Childs chain’ could be ‘astonishingly open,’ accord to the historian George Chauncey. Some proprietors encouraged their reputation as ‘gay hangouts’ to attract late-night sightseers […] Because they had to be clandestine, the gay speakeasies that flourished in the twenties and thirties were usually very safe places to congregate. After Franklin Roosevelt ended Prohibition in 1933, the speakeasies were replaced by a constantly changing constellation of gay bars. These saloons tended to be more open, but that meant they were also subject to much more harassment. Even inside gay bars, plainclothes policemen would practice entrapment, actually displaying erections in the bathroom to trick customers into propositioning them—a practice that continued in New York until the end of the 1960s. Payoffs to policemen by bar owners were frequent and utterly brazen.” (Kaiser 12-13).

“[Harlem’s Annual Drag Ball](https://t.umblr.com/redirect?z=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.harlemworldmag.com%2Fharlems-drag-ball-history%2F&t=MzExMjE0N2E0YzdhODk4NzI0ZWY3NjZhY2FjNThlOWFiZWM4MmFmMiwwc2o4S1BCcw%3D%3D&b=t%3AGXjD4VSI34qFI1GO-3jarQ&p=http%3A%2F%2Fferrific.tumblr.com%2Fpost%2F96145015648%2Fwould-stevebucky-have-been-able-to-go-to-a-pansy&m=1) at the Fun Makers Social Club was a hit in 1944. ‘The men who don silks, satins and laces for the yearly masquerades are as style-conscious as the women of a social club planning an annual charity affair or a society dowager selecting a debutante gown for her favorite daughter,’  _ _Ebony__ magazine reported. ‘Lawyers, undertakers, truck drivers and dishwashers minced across the stage to compete for cash prizes.’ And at Lucky’s Rendezvous, black and white men mingled happily in an atmosphere ‘steeped in the swish jargon of its many lavender customers’” (40-41).

“The end of Prohibition in 1933 compounded the effects of the depression, at least in New York if not elsewhere. The public presence of fairies or pansies would no longer be tolerated as bar owners had to police their clients in order to keep their licenses. Notably this led to an even stronger identification of homosexuality with gender inversion, since the only ‘recognizable’ gay men would be those who were overtly effeminate. Beginning in this era, periodic police raids because common, especially when officials embark on (often politically motivated) ‘cleanup campaigns’” (Eaklor 62-63).


End file.
